Jacksonville Jaguars

). It is explanatory to note that the Titans and Dolphins were the only teams with winning records that the Jaguars faced that year, as the team was heavily criticized for their seemingly lackluster schedule.

Decline: 2000-2002

Following their defeat in the AFC Championship Game, the team's fortunes declined as players left due to the team's poor salary cap position. Boselli, along with strong defensive tackles Gary Walker and Seth Payne were exposed to be drafted by the expansion Texans in 2002. This move helped bring the Jaguars under the salary cap, but was emblematic of the loss of talent over these years. WR Keenan McCardell, CB Aaron Beasley, LB Kevin Hardy and RB James Stewart were other players lost to free agency because of salary-cap issues. The years 2000-2002 all featured losing records. Coach Tom Coughlin was quoted as saying his 2002 squad had less talent on it than the original 1995 expansion team roster, a statement that many analysts agreed with. Coughlin would coach that team to 6 wins (compared to 4 wins in 1995), but he was also to blame for the team's roster and salary cap issues because he doubled as the team's general manager.

In January of 2003, the Jaguars fired Tom Coughlin along with all of his staff. Team owner Wayne Weaver shortly announced Coughlin's replacements, they were former NFL quarterback James "Shack" Harris as General Manager (VP of Player Personnel) and former Carolina Panthers defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio in the head coaching position. Del Rio also had an impressive NFL career, going to the Pro Bowl as a linebacker.

Return to the Playoffs: 2003-2005

Del Rio has been referred to as a "players' coach" and is rarely seen yelling at his players on the sideline or saying bad things about them to the press (in stark contrast to Coughlin). His training camps are noted for having a low number of high-intensity workouts in full pads, tending to emphasize walking through the game's mental aspects instead.

James Harris is noted for his "Best Player Available" draft philosophy, in which he ignores the team's current roster and simply picks the college player he feels is the best athlete. This is in contrast to Coughlin's draft philosophy, which was based on assessing needs in the current pro roster. James Harris put this philosophy to work immediately upon being hired, drafting quarterback Byron Leftwich even though Mark Brunell, who at the time was in the top ten for best QB rating in league history, was still on the roster. Harris's 2003 and 2004 draft classes are already highly regarded.

The 2004 season, celebrated as the 10th season of the Jaguars' existence, resulted in a winning record of 9-7 with road victories against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field as well as the Indianapolis Colts at the RCA Dome. The Jaguars' defense was a strong suit, as it included the 2 of the team's Pro Bowl players, defensive tackles Marcus Stroud and John Henderson. Byron Leftwich also enjoyed a solid year in 2004, helped by strong performances from holdovers Fred Taylor and Jimmy Smith. Unfortunately, Taylor sustained a season-ending injury at the Packers game. The very next week saw the Jaguars fall to the Houston Texans, which would ultimately eliminate the Jaguars from the playoffs. This denied them an opportunity to play the Super Bowl at their home stadium (the Super Bowl in February 2005 being the first the Jaguars, and Jacksonville, hosted).

As of the beginning of the 2006 NFL season, the Jaguars are one of three franchises, along with New Orleans, and Houston, to have never played in a Super Bowl or NFL championship game.

The 2005 Jaguars' hoped to challenge the Colts for the division title. However, due to their 13-0 start, including two victories against the Jaguars, the Colts were able to easily clinch the AFC South title. With a 12-4 record (second best finish in team history), however, the Jaguars easily qualified for one of the conference's two wild card playoff allocations. Among these 12 wins were a 23-20 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on October 9 2005 and a 23-17 overtime victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on October 16 2005. While the Jaguars managed to win key games in 2005, 9 of their final 10 games were played against opponents with losing records. Though these games were wins, key players Byron Leftwich, Mike Peterson, Paul Spicer, and Rashean Mathis were hurt during this stretch. The Jaguars ended the season losing 28-3 to the two-time defending champion New England Patriots on January 7 2006 in the 2005 season's AFC Wild Card Playoff round.

2006

In the 2006 NFL Draft, the Jaguars used their first pick on UCLA TE Marcedes Lewis. They then used their next pick on UCLA RB Maurice Drew. They then used the rest of their picks on Oklahoma LB Clint Ingram, Illinois St. DE Brent Hawkins, Syracuse DE James Wyche, and Florida DB Dee Webb.

Logo and uniforms

Jacksonville Jaguars full logo

The day after the NFL awarded the expansion team to Jacksonville, a triumphant and surprised Wayne Weaver held up the Jaguars' proposed silver helmet and teal jersey at the NFL owners' meeting in Chicago. The team's colors were revealed to be teal, gold, and silver with black accents. However, this jersey and helmet design stirred controversy. Both included the team's logo with a gold leaping jaguar. This caught the attention of Ford Motor Company, parent of the automaker Jaguar, in that the Jaguars' logo was almost an exact copy of the automaker's logo, which was also used as a hood ornament. Though no lawsuit was brought to trial, an amicable agreement was ultimately reached where Jaguar would be named the official car of the Jaguars, and the Jaguars would redesign their uniforms.

The new logo became a prominent snarling Jaguars head with a teal tongue. The redesigned uniforms feature an all-black helmet, white pants, gold numbers and trim, and either teal or white jerseys. A prowling jaguar replaced the leaping jaguar on the sleeves. Minor modifications have been introduced since then, such as changing the font of the jersey numbers.

For most of its short history, the Jaguars did what many other NFL teams located in subtropical climates traditionally practice: wear their white jerseys at home during the first half of the season — forcing opponents to wear their dark ones under the sweltering autumns in Jacksonville. However, ever since Jack Del Rio took over as head coach in 2003, the team seems to only wear their white jerseys at home during September.

The team introduced an alternate black jersey in 2002. During that same year, the team also started to wear black pants, mostly with their white jerseys. With the introduction of the black pants, the team stopped wearing the white jersey/white pants combination. One exception was the Jaguars' 2005 opening day home victory against the Seattle Seahawks, who were forced to wear their blue jerseys on a warm September day in Jacksonville. The black pants design has the team Jaguar head logo on them, unlike their white pants.

Season-by-season records